160 YEARS AGO: The Old Flag once more waves over the City of Richmond! The Army of the Potomac, after four days hard fighting, has put the army of Lee to route and taken possession of the rebel stronghold and capital. There are sounds of rejoicing throughout the land—for we are so much nearer an honorable peace. The turning point in the terrible battle which won Richmond was the bloody engagement at Five Forks on Saturday which was “fairly won”…
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110 YEARS AGO: Commandments of the Road for Automobilists: The National Council of Industrial Safety asks all automobilists to obey to the letter these ten commandments of the road: Don’t run fast into or across main highways. Don’t take blind curves too fast. Don’t run on the wrong side of the road. Don’t pass street cars when passengers are boarding or leaving. Don’t fail to sound your horn before passing other vehicles. Don’t forget that a car or a person…
160 YEARS AGO: The question of submitting to the States a proposition to amend the Federal Constitution in order to abolish slavery throughout the Union, has, as our readers are aware, passed the Senate by the requisite two-thirds vote and is now before the House of Representatives. The Republicans support the measure to a man; most of the Democrats oppose it—not because they care to perpetuate slavery, but because they doubt the policy and good effect on the country of…
40 YEARS AGO: Nearly 60 people attending a celebration for legalized abortion were urged to write letters to Oneonta Mayor James Lettis protesting his proclamation this week as the “Week of the Unborn Child.” “We find this very offensive that a religious view is put in a citywide proclamation,” Chris Lilly of Oneonta said to the group gathered at the Universalist Church, 12 Ford Avenue. The meeting was jointly sponsored by the National Organization for Women, Women Concerned about Women…
185 YEARS AGO: Federalism—This once honored and honorable term seems to have become a word of reproach, its friends as well as its enemies repudiating the name. How fallen—none so poor as to do it reverence; none so poor as to own it as their cognomen. The self-styled Whig Party seems anxious to rid themselves of this, to them, appropriate name; and they strive to hide the obnoxious features of their creed with the cloak of Equal Rights; endeavoring, by…
50 YEARS AGO: Almost one-third of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad’s New York derailments last year occurred in Otsego and Schoharie counties. According to State Department of Transportation (DOT) files, the D. & H. had 37 derailments in 1974, 10 of them in Otsego County and one in Schoharie County. Included was the derailment of a train pulling propane cars that subsequently exploded injuring 55 firemen and onlookers on February 12, 1974. In 1973, the D. & H. also had…
135 YEARS AGO: The Cooperstown Hospital—The four children of the late Mrs. Jane R.A. Carter unite in the generous gift of $10,000 for the proposed Village Thanksgiving Hospital, or so much thereof as shall be necessary to erect a suitable building for that purpose—one-half to be paid on the commencement of the structure and the rest when needed. The gift is by Mrs. P.A.H. Brown, Mrs. G. Hyde Clarke, Miss Anna Grace Carter, and Mrs. L. Averell Carter, and will…
50 Years Ago: The gold rush that generally started as a slow walk resumes Thursday after a one-day holiday break. Thomas W. Wolfe, head of the Treasury’s Office of Domestic Gold and Silver Operations, said the first day of legal sale of gold bullion to American citizens in 41 years showed that demand was extremely slow and almost nonexistent. Specialists had predicted that the end of the ban on private ownership of gold bullion might create a modern gold rush.…
185 YEARS AGO: Tobacco—We are of the opinion that tobacco has a much more deleterious effect upon the constitution than is generally apprehended, either when snuffed, chewed, or smoked. Tobacco chewers and tobacco smokers are worse off, if possible, than snuff takers. They may live longer than the rum drinker and some constitutions possibly may not suffer essential injury in the moderate use of tobacco. But there is a danger that moderate smoking and chewing may create an inordinate desire…
50 Years Ago: The Best of Television—“Of Women & Men” NBC News Special—Ambitious, provocative three-hour study of the changing relations between women and men in a multitude of fields, ranging from sex, life-styles, family life, education and divorce, to jobs, politics, religion and sports. Reporters Barbara Walters and Tom Snyder handle their jobs as co-hosts and interviewers with sensitivity, and the fact comes through that women have, indeed, changed and broadened the pattern of their identities to permit a wide…